The Lucky Ones
by AstralMiscreant
Summary: What if Tadashi survived the fire? What if when he woke up, he was met with a change in heart and seething anger that now threatened to devour him in whole? Join Tadashi on his road to recovery mixed with some brotherly love, revenge and... future romance?
1. Prelude

**Disclaimer: All rights belong to Disney and the respective creators of this film.**

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><p><span><strong>Prelude: Unscathed<strong>

He woke up to the white flash of an alabaster ceiling, all dull and monotonous and he wondered vaguely to himself where he was. There were objects_, things,_ surrounding him; all jumbled into an indiscernible portrait of silhouettes and colors that he could not comprehend from the haze that met his sight. The lights had been blinding and his poor eyes tried desperately to readjust to the brightness of it all, but to no avail however. Quickly now, he shut his eyes to escape the offensive light and retreated back to his refuge of darkness and pure nothingness.

From a distance, he heard voices, whispering, _murmuring_, words of distress - to what he had deciphered from the strange mixture of sadness and anxiety that laced their voices. What were these voices, moreover what was wrong with anything... _everything?_ What was...? The thoughts that he was trying so desperately to piece together were scattered and dwindling as if they were now broken pieces crumbling through his fingers; like dust in the wind or perhaps ash... Wait, _ash?_

"...blinking...I think... he's awake..." he suddenly heard a voice, _the voice of a woman._ It sounded so familiar and sweet, with its melodious tone that practically dripped with honey... Wait, Honey? Or was it Gogo? He was not sure.

_"Tadashi!"_ He heard the voice of a child,_ no,_ older than that and the voice itself had evoked a small twinge of sentimentality within his core.

_ "Tadashi!"_ He felt himself shift on his side on whatever he had been lying on and the crinkling of linen sheets reverberated throughout... wherever he was.

_"Tadashi!"_ He felt his hands twitch on their own accord as he forced himself to open his heavy eye lids, but the lights were blinding, oh so, blinding.

_"Tadashi!"_ With what little resolve he had left, he had forced himself to open them and ignoring the light, a flash of white had bombarded his senses.

He felt himself blinking continuously so as to adjust to the bright lights and when his poor eyesight finally did adjust to as much as it could, Tadashi was stunned when he realized that a group of people had been surrounding him - all with eyes reflecting deep concern.

Amongst the middle of the group was his little brother who had found his way on top of the bed he had been lying on, only to come rushing at him in a hurried embrace. He immediately felt pain upon the warm contact, however, he had winced it away to weakly wrap his own arms (which now seemed far heavier than they had ever felt in his life) around Hiro.

"W-What h-happened?" his voice came out croaked and feeble and it surprised him greatly – never had he felt so foreign as he now did when he heard himself speak.

It was as if someone else's voice had been coming out of his throat, all unfamiliar and outlandish.

"The fire, Tadashi, you went back to save your Professor and... A gas pipe had leaked and the whole building exploded. You were caught in the flames and..." his aunt Cass had appeared by his side to divulge the information since Hiro had suddenly became oddly quiet.

The rest of the words she had been spewing fell upon deaf ears as Tadashi had blocked it all out in order to concentrate on the intricate binding of gauze that had now had been wrapped carefully around his arms. He reached out slowly towards the white blanket that had been covering the lower half of his body, but the simple act itself proved far too strenuous for him to do.

Sensing his distress, Wasabi had tentatively pulled the sheet up for him, revealing two long legs wrapped with layers of white binding and gauze. He tried to shift one of them slightly, but the pain that shot up from his leg and through his thigh was too overwhelming, so he had opted on leaving it alone for the time being.

"S-So, what's the damage?" He croaked out.

"Two broken legs and a shattered collarbone from the impact of the explosion, third degree burns that required a skin graft, a fractured arm and... no hair... no hair at all..." Gogo had taken the oppurtunity to speak now.

"Though quite clichéd, the doctors said it was a miracle that you even survived that explosion. You're one of _the lucky ones_ they say," Honey finished sadly as her hand reached towards Tadashi's own bandaged hand to gently squeeze it in reassurance.

He tried to squeeze back, but his hands would not listen to him no matter what he tried, so with a a sigh of resignation, Tadashi, to the best of his ability, twitched his hand as he leaned back into his pillow. "Why can't I move anything?" He was frustrated now.

"Atrophy," Gogo said simply. "You haven't used your muscles in a while."

"How long was _'awhile?_'"

"Two months, dude. You've been out for a pretty long time..." Fred replied. "I'm surprised you haven't like gotten paralyzed or something like that... I think?"

"Fred!" Honey and Gogo had admonished at the same time.

"What?" The redhead questoned obliviously as he pulled down his beanie to scratch his scalp indicating his genuine confusion.

"Never mind." Fred was a lost cause anyway.

"I'm so sorry, man. If I knew that night that, that's where you and Hiro were headed... I would've dragged you to my car myself," Wasabi supplied, trying to diffuse the awkwardness in the air.

"...Appreciate the gesture Wasabi, but... Too late now, huh?" he replied in a weak voice as he blinked his eyes away from the light.

"I'm so sorry..."

"It can't be helped, really... It's not your fault..."

"I should've tried harder to pull you back Tadashi, I shouldn't have let you go," Hiro said with watery eyes. "I'm so stupid!" The younger boy had banged his head on the bed railing in frustration.

"...It's okay buddy. No need to beat yourself up over it. I'm okay Hiro, I really am."

"No you're not. You can't even move..."

Tadashi blinked once more and his eyes had suddenly become heavy again, as if someone had literally attached weights on the tip of his lids. As he blinked away the heaviness, a haze had overcome his eyesight and his thoughts had become scattered again. It was all a puzzle that he could not piece together.

"I'm tired…" he felt himself murmur into the blurry haze of white monotony and silhouettes of his friends and family.

Flashes of black seemed to become more and more comforting until he was overcome with that perpetual darkness that beckoned him to the land of the unknown, where thoughts were more imaginative and scenes were more vivid. He thought he saw images, ones of fire dancing in an ancient cycle of death and rebirth and emerging from the flames came the image of his beloved little brother, then his parents and finally the face of his professor. He was not sure why, but upon dreaming of the man with his withered face and cerulean eyes, a small sense of burning anger had overcome his senses.. but, he could not remember nor did he understand why the thought of the man seemed to incite such a burning anger...

"We'll see you when you wake up Tadashi," were the last words he heard before he succumbed to the dark abyss of sleep.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I wrote this after stumbling across this Big Hero 6 fanart in the tag on Tumblr where Tadashi had survived, but had become more darker in terms of characteristics from wanting to seek revenge from Callaghan. Not sure if I should make a continuation of this story, so I'm wondering what you guys think and if you like it or not? If so, I might continue it off with some brotherly bonding, Tadashi love and maybe some future romance.. perhaps with a certain purple haired shortie *cough cough* Gogo? I just love her so much you know?

Anyways, Questions? Comments? Tell me what you think by leaving a review down below.

**Reviews are love. **

And I love you all too!


	2. Chapter 1: Picking Up the Pieces

**Disclaimer: All rights belong to Disney and the respective creators of this film.**

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><p><span><strong>Chapter One: Picking Up the Pieces<strong>

_When Tadashi ran inside the burning building at San Fronsokyo's Institution of Technology's convention center, he didn't expect to get hurt._

Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was that rush of endorphins that surged through his body at the thought of wanting to save someone's life because Tadashi had to do it - it was in his genetic wiring.

It was as if he were programmed to be nice, to think of another's well-being before himself. His friends would always keep him in such a high regard, for he was Tadashi Hamada; kind, sweet, thoughtful.

But that was only scratching the surface.

Not only was he a kind person at heart, he was a genius too. His mind worked like a well-oiled machine working well with the bunches of neurons and receptors that told him how to react, how to think. The gray matter in his brain was what determined his every move, his every thought, his every idea. However, sometimes impulse kicked in and overrode all thoughts of common sense and the more irresponsible side of him came out.

And when he thought about it, running into a burning building probably wasn't the smartest idea.

Now here he was, all nothing but broken limbs and deep gashes that now ran through his body like a never ending road...

_When Tadashi ran into the burning building at San Fransokyo's Institution of Technology's convention center, he didn't expect to lose so much._

He lost his drive that day, he lost his hair, hell, he even lost a part of his heart.

Once he came out of the flames barely grasping onto that thin thread of life, a piece of his heart had hardened, possibly shattered... Or was it torn? He didn't really know.

Now here he was, reduced to an empty shell devoid of any happy emotions, only capable of emoting a façade that appeared joyful on the surface. He wasn't happy, but he sure as hell didn't want others to know of that. Tadashi Hamada was the light in the darkness, a beacon of hope that all who he had known would lean on. He couldn't let them down, but how could he do this if he had been letting himself down in the process?

Stepping out of his aunt's house one day, no, being wheeled out of his aunt's house by Gogo, was when he first realized that inner turmoil that had been simmering within. It was subtle, but all the more daunting as realization hit him like a speeding bullet, or maybe one of those electromagnetic levitation discs Gogo had been developing...

He realized how hard it was_, how hard it would be_, how his life would never be the same.

When he had tried to slightly flex his aching muscles to shift in the uncomfortable wheelchair, a jarring revelation had hit him like a ton of bricks, crushing his last semblance of joy and replacing it with complete and utter sadness.

It was a sadness that reached out towards his friends and family. It was a sadness that resonated deeply within himself. The simple act of attempting to move his muscles had been way more difficult than he had imagined and it daunted him. It was because of this that he was reduced to what he was now, it was because of his stupid whim on wanting to be the big hero and save the day that he was reduced to a_ cripple._

He sighed at the thought.

"You look down in the dumps," Gogo called out indifferently from behind him as she steadily pushed him down the crosswalk. "Care to tell me what's on your mind, I mean if that'll make you feel better or something." He heard the sound of her bubblegum smacking on her lips as she said this.

"Well, I don't know... I can barely move for one and I'm practically bald and..." He then proceeded to list a long list of a whole bunch of other things that made him feel like the most unlucky guy on earth on the tip of his digits until Gogo had shushed him with her finger on his mouth mid-speech.

"I don't think it's that bad," she tried to reason.

"Well, I don't know Gogo," he replied, waving her hand away from his mouth. "Why don't you go a day without any hair on your head? I'm all bald and I look like an old man, it blows."

"Sorry about you're messed up vanity... But you know, I think it's actually kinda cute. Although, you're not really channeling the old grandpa look to me, more like a baby. Yeah, you look like a baby," she quipped and he felt her fingers curl around the small tufts of hair that were now growing on his scalp. It felt nice.

"That's even worse," he sighed in feigned dejection as he put his hands up to his face full of melodrama and himself. "I'd take the grandpa look over the baby look any day."

"Weird..." She said with a pout as she furrowed her brows. He wondered what she was thinking about right now because a growing silence had suddenly overtaken the two.

Tadashi suddenly felt misplaced, _awkward_, as he sat rigidly on his wheelchair while Gogo continued to push him around the streets of San Fransokyo's boroughs.

He tried searching for something else to occupy his mind and diverted his attention to the setting before them.

The bustling crowds of Lombard Street rang with a melody of chattering voices, laughs and shouts all meshed together in a symphony of sounds.

Businessmen, shop keepers, tourists, locals and passerby's all hustled down the streets exchanging small glances towards one another as they rushed towards their respective destinations. The flurry of voices and swoosh of cars hovering around at over a hundred miles per hour was what brought the city's streets to life – it was the sound of San Fransokyo and its denizens (or otherwise) going about with their daily activities in an unspoken interdependence of people and technology all working together.

"It's nice today," Tadashi murmured as his eyes flickered around the myriad of things and people that met his eyes.

"I mean if you like noisy, overcrowded sidewalks, then yeah…sure –" suddenly a man on a speeding bicycle abruptly came cycling past their direction and Gogo pulled him back and turned towards the man "- Watch it asshole! There's people walking here!"

The man ignored her as he continued on his way and Tadashi could've sworn he had heard a string of unintelligible profanities being muttered under her breath. He chuckled wryly to himself, it was nice seeing Gogo acting like, well… Gogo.

"Well, it's better than being holed up inside with no one but yourself and Mochi…" he muttered, genuine dejection lacing his every word.

A look of pity had flashed across her countenance and he felt the wheelchair suddenly stop at a screeching halt. "Well, that's exactly why I'm taking you out today. You need some fresh air! That room of yours is way too stuffy and… lonely – even if Hiro's around."

"I guess your right… Say, where are we going anyways? I feel like we've been walking forever."

"Correction – I've been walking forever…You've just been… rolling?"

"Oh, ha, ha, very funny Gogo. But seriously, where are you taking me?"

He vaguely remembered how Hiro had woken him up earlier this morning telling him that his raven haired friend had appeared in the cafe asking for him because she quote on quote," Wanted to take him out just for the hell of it." It was understandable, seeing is how as of late, he had been holed up in his room wallowing in self-pity ever since he was discharged from the hospital. Still, he really wished he knew where she was taking him.

"Like I said, Tadashi, to get some fresh air." And as she turned another corner, a familiar sight of cherry blossoms and curving sidewalks met his eyes all with benches littered around the area.

"And what better place to get some fresh air than the park?" she questioned as she wheeled him in towards the bridge that overran a small man-made river. "It's just like old times isn't it? You know, when the gang would all gather here to mess around and have a few drinks."

"By drinks, you meant coffee, right?"

"Oh, was that all you and Honey would be drinking?" she laughed. "Figures."

They crossed the bridge and made it towards a pathway where dozens of cherry blossom trees were lined around. A rush of nostalgia had bombarded his senses. "Remember that place?" she questioned as she pointed towards a small opening in the trees where a group of teenagers were seen loitering around. "That's where we met Fred, remember?"

"Yeah, back when he was that one kid who sat near the trees and told stories with the homeless guys. He was always hilarious, it makes sense that we all just clicked," Tadashi finished as he gazed at the area.

"Yeah and remember that day when we found Fred and Wasabi knocked out on the benches after getting stoned out of their minds?"

"Oh yeah, and when Fred woke up and thought that we were those characters from his comic book… What did he say again…? _'Dude, its Krogar and aren't you like General Von Strauss… It's totally like that one time when you were like supposed to throwdown with each other on that special crossover in Volume 4 of The Krogar Chronicles… I mean now you gotta do it, you have fight, you just have to man. I'll count to three and 1..2…wait…4… Now fight!'_" Tadashi mused as he tried his hardest at his best Fred impression.

Gogo snorted as a deep bellied laugh erupted from her throat and she clutched at her sides.

"And remember that theme song he started to sing when we tried to get Wasabi off the park bench and walked them back to the café?" she questioned through her fit of laughter.

It was Tadashi's turn to laugh as he found himself weakly clutching on his stomach as a deep cackle came tumbling out of his lips. He wiped the tears that came pouring from the corners of his eyes as he attempted to recompose himself.

"Aw, man, Fred is such an idiot," Gogo joked as she too was in the midst of wiping her eyes.

"Yeah, but a lovable idiot."

"Yeah…"

They stayed like that for the rest of the morning, keeping each other company and talking about anything and everything. Tadashi was glad Gogo had decided to take him out for a while and for the rest of the afternoon, the turmoil that bubbled within him went completely overlooked. Not once did he wallow about his own shortcomings, not once had he thought about the fire, or of his aching limbs, or even Callaghan's muddled image that would often pop up in his head from time to time.

_For only but a fleeting moment, Tadashi felt like himself again with Gogo by his side…_

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I know, first chapter and I'm already adding some premature fluff but I just can't help it - I love these two together! Also, I haven't really divulged much yet and I promise there is more to come dealing with Tadashi's new disposition and some cute sibling moments with Hiro in the next few chapters! Although Tadashi has been acting pretty in-character thus far, expect to see a drastic change of heart through the upcoming chapters. And some Callaghan revenge will make a slow, but steady appearance some time in the future as well, so don't you worry!

Questions, comments? Tell me what you think down below because I love hearing your feedback!

**Reviews are love.**


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